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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22594747">Fairweather</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasp/pseuds/jasp'>jasp</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pyre (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dialogue Heavy, Established Relationship, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Post-Canon, canon-typical sipping of strange liquors, it becomes More Established but they definitely have a thing, more or less anyways., vaguely spinning off the 'liberated together' ending</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:14:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22594747</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasp/pseuds/jasp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Pamitha came around like the summer showers in the bogs that were Bertrude’s home. Just as one would muse that it had been some time since the last rain, the air would grow heavy and expectant with moisture leached from the earth, until it could bear no more and let loose its burden, sudden as a sigh and just as brief.</p>
<p>(In which the urge to self-sabotage is as persistent and natural as gravity)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Big Bertrude/Pamitha Theyn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Chocolate Box - Round 5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Fairweather</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingpineapple/gifts">laughingpineapple</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Pamitha came around like the summer showers in the bogs that were Bertrude’s home. Just as one would muse that it had been some time since the last rain, the air would grow heavy and expectant with moisture leached from the earth, until it could bear no more and let loose its burden, sudden as a sigh and just as brief.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The remnants of their late-night meal - freshly caught that afternoon and prepared into the evening - were cold on the table. The warmth of the fire and the bed and the bog-brewed liquor was attempting valiantly to lure both of the room’s occupants into a doze, but was only partially succeeding.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Bertrude grumbled; the snakes wreathed around her head hissed quiet displeasure. "Nrrghh, thine energy this evening is so murky that it would put our foulest brews to shame."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Is that right?" Pamitha laughed, convincing enough for one who didn't know her. "Nothing a little bit more to drink can't fix." She made to sit up and reach for the most convenient bottle, something bright green and very questionable resting unsuspectingly on a low shelf.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Bertrude, however, had a proficiency for being stubborn and immovable that had been honed over centuries. She shifted to drape her weight more heavily across Pamitha's legs and hips and narrowed her eyes keenly. Pamitha responded with a calculated gaze, brushing a feathered caress against Bertrude's gaunt cheek.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Ready for another round already, hm? I'm a little surprised, I have to admit, but I can hardly say no to such obvious...mm. Passion?"</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Do not pretend now that thou dost not wish to speak thy mind,” Bertrude said, and added knowingly, “Particularly if thou art going to pretend so poorly.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn't exactly a rebuke, but it wasn't not one either. Pamitha sighed and leaned back against the pillows, abandoning her halfhearted attempt to flee, if only for the moment. "Had I words for you, dear Bertrude, I promise you I'd share them."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Thou art trying to rush as if thou wert still but a fledgling. Thou knowest better than this, nrrrggghh." </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was the precise inflection of a dissatisfied flight leader, and Pamitha certainly did know well enough to know when someone was trying to get a rise out of her, but that didn't stop a kernel of embarrassment from forming in her chest. She breathed deep and turned her eyes to the ceiling and let the tightness out in a lengthy, measured exhale. She thought about what had brought her here, this time, and the time before that, and the time before that. She did the math in her head - how many moons, how many faces, how many ship's decks and leagues of open water before that ache began again to roost in her heart, and refused to be flushed out by mere intoxication or unfamiliar skies. She wanted to speak; she wanted to say nothing. She wanted to stay; she wanted to go. "When it rains," she said, because it was all she could think of. "Do you think about where all that water goes?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Bertrude laughed dryly, a sparse sort of chuckle like strong wind through bare branches. "Thou askest us questions thou intendest to answer thyself - spare us."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"And so my career as a public speaker ends before it begins. Just as well - I can't imagine I would've gotten very far." Pamitha chuckled, and waited a moment while the thread of her thoughts recollected itself. "The rain doesn't just go anywhere, of course. It flows wherever it's easiest - downhill, usually. Drop by drop it carves streams, and rivers, and soon enough every drop of rain that falls anywhere in this world of ours ends up drawn into the same place. Some deep canyon or endless ocean.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"And as we know, it takes an astral miracle and at least 8 very powerful, Titan-slaying friends to make water flow back up every once in a while," she continued with a wry smile. "You can hardly blame someone for following a path of somewhat less resistance than that."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The dubious bottle she had reached for before entered her line of sight, clutched in a bony hand, and she propped herself up to accept it with a grateful kiss to Bertrude's cheek; she received a few fond flicks from tiny, snakey tongues in return. "Thou must be parched, now that thou hast found thy unceasing voice."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Absolutely. You read my mind." She tilted the bottle back and drank gratefully. The alcohol was flavored with preserved spring herbs; it burned into her chest and loosened the cold, clinging talons of fear in her lungs. "I'm not ever going to stay in one place for long, you know."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Nrrgggh, that hath been evident to us since we met thee,” Bertrude intoned flatly. “State thee thy concern."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Well it seems obvious enough to me, darling," Pamitha sighed and offered the bottle back to Bertrude, who accepted it and took a sip. "Most people would want some consistency, don't you think? A familiar face to come home to. Someone to pass the time with, always."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Someone with whom to go hunting in the bogs?" Bertrude asked pointedly, and gestured around with the bottle. "Someone whose hearth thou canst lounge beside whenever it pleaseth thee?"</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"You're always a few steps ahead." Something stifling was rising in Pamitha's throat. She glanced out into the night through a crack in the colorful curtains, read the stars in a heartbeat, and forced out the rest of her words. "I suppose it’s time I see myself out, if you'll allow me to retrieve my clothes."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Bertrude hissed an unimpressed laugh, and seemed to consider staying put as she had earlier, and simply not permitting Pamitha to wriggle away. At length, though, she set her drink aside and slithered off to a less occupied edge of her comfortably worn mattress, pulling a blanket around her shoulders against the sudden, lonely chill. "There are far less arcane ways than this to go about making thyself miserable."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"I'm always open to suggestions." Pamitha smirked and got to her feet. She searched distractedly for familiar shapes of fabric in the general clutter of pillows and papers, a preamble to the affected lightness in her voice. "It's certainly not fair of me, though, regardless - leaving and returning only as I please." </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Thou thinkest us so unobservant as to be angered that thou art exactly as we know thee to be!" Bertrude's snakes curled upon themselves agitatedly. "Have we given thee reason to believe that we do not understand thee?"</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Pamitha stopped short in the midst of retrieving something she suspected was her shirt, glanced back over her shoulder guiltily. "No."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Or reason to believe that we are some naive tad eager to plunge headfirst into waters that we would know to be poisonous to us?"</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Of course not."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Thou dost not doubt us for our sake," Bertrude said with a finality that made it clear she knew the argument was over.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"...No." Pamitha fell silent and turned away, taking longer than she really needed to gather her clothing and put herself back together a piece at a time, mindful of her wingspan in the low-ceilinged dwelling. She perched on a seat near the fireplace to absently adjust the wraps around her feet. She heard the shuffling of objects and drawers behind her, but didn't look away from the banked coals, even as the sound of dry scales on worn wood slithered up beside her. "...Things don't have a history of simply working out for me, Bertrude, dear. You'll forgive me if I have some reservations now and again."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Nrrrrrgh, thou art forgiven indeed, and thou wilt not leave this house without our blessing." The fabric-wrapped bundle that landed in Pamitha's lap got her attention - a peek inside revealed dried tree fruits, jerky made from mud-dwelling fish and reptiles, and the hard, dark bread of the South, all heavily salted (and perhaps subtly enchanted) to protect against the humidity of wetlands, or of ocean travel. "Though watch thy tongue in the future lest we change our mind."</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Oh, I'll watch my tongue, alright," Pamitha said with a laugh and a suggestive wink. "Surely it's acceptable to let it say 'thank you'?"</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>"Let it, and we shall see," Bertrude countered, her thin smile laced with mischief.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They kissed on the threshold, in the pre-dawn twilight and the singing of the frogs; and then they parted, knowing the season would come when they would see one another again.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For laughingpineapple - I hope this lives up to your stellar understanding of these characters!</p>
<p>I like to think of these two as complementary in this way specifically - one "settled" physically but always intellectually curious, one always roaming physically but secretly longing for an anchor. Bertrude strikes me as quite a self-satisfied and confident homebody.</p>
<p>Learning Bertrude's grammar was also a trip - I had about 6 different "Shakespearean English" tabs open while writing, and ultimately deferred the question of whether pronouns belong in imperatives. When in doubt, nrrrrggghhh.</p>
<p>Happy Valentine's!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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